Got MILK?

Its Friday – its the movies.  I sat in the second row center, I moved up an extra row to be really alone.  Good thing as I was weeping audibly.  I always bring a blanket incase it is cold and it was a big hankie today.  How much can you forget?  It changes every day ~ sometimes its a lot and sometimes its nothing at all but today it was just tucked away, waiting to be remembered, filled with emotion, bursting with memories, so much – too much. 

I knew MILK would be spectacular; Sean Penn, gay rights and Gus Van Sant.  Several people wrote me and said it was great.  Unexpectedly the last third of the movie knocked me out.  In 1978, my little bookstore was one of the primary organizing HG’s for the NO ON 6 campaign.  John Briggs was all over the OC and Anita Bryant was so much fun to mock.  We boycotted Florida Orange juice and hotly debated the ethics of “outing.”  We sold the Advocate, sold Holy Near tickets and never considered being closeted.  We were out lesbians in the middle of Newport Beach, Orange County, California.

As the movie portrays, we thought that we were going to lose; particularly in the eye of the OC.  It was a shock that we won.  The queers won.  We were going to be fully accepted, integrated and de-stigmatized.  State by state, county by county, family by family; as we came out, we certified our social membership.  I remember telling people, who had not come out, that they would be supported by those of us who were out.  Coming Out was all it was going to take.  Women and men gathered at The Magic Speller Bookstore.  We all enjoyed the lesbian and gay books, the fantastic bars and believed that the heavy lifting was over. 

Of course, within a few weeks Harvey was shot and the “twinkie defense” was more egregious than “if the glove fits, you must acquit.”  With Simpson, it was one man and a tight circle of people effected but the murder of Milk left thousands of us ignited, incited and in various levels of exposure in work, home and families.  My life was as blessed then as it is now; I was out, my girlfriend was out and we were safe.  I publicly testified at a Newport Beach City Council meeting as an out lesbian and no one in my neighborhood was visibly upset.  The store was never vandalized.  Briggs lost, Bryant lost, queers won. 

Twenty days or so, from the elation of the defeat of the Briggs Initiative and the assassination of Harvey Milk.  Twenty days or so, to dance with joy and come out to one’s self and all whom one loves.  It was brief, reelingly brief.  That shot did not instantly galvanize the movement, that takes time and radiates from progressive places (The Castro) to conservative homes (Montana) at a snail’s pace.  AIDS was the gasoline on that fire in those rosary praying, bible thumping homes.  (and you may recall Mr. Falwell kept that bullshit going right through 9/11 and Katrina). 

So I just wept.  Second row center.  Dec 5, 2008.  It sort of all runs together, like a Jackson Pollack (whom I can’t stand).  No Harvey, thirty years later it is not all done; it seems to just be getting started.  And I heard you say, its not politics, its a movement.  Sure seems slow.  Too slow. 

Comments

[Linda]

Zoe, I told you it was a very moving film and one that makes one want to DO SOMETHING to ensure equality for GLBTQ people. I saw it in San Francisco on the opening day. There was a candlelight march in San Francisco. It was eerie to be right in the neighborhood where so much history took place. It's hard to believe (as with racial segregation and discrimination) that there was time when these people were talking about firing people from jobs because they were gay, deny them housing and all kinds of other human rights because of ones sexuality. We have to mend this society of this hatred and oppression of GLBTQ people. I think everyone should see MILK. Its message is so timely. Linda

[Hayley Arrington]

I totally agree with you; I loved this film. My boyfriend and I saw it together for free on Wednesday at the Block and it was totally packed full. We both agree that it was great and will definitely garner some Oscars. It was amazing, and when it ended people clapped, which kind of shocked me. There was audible emotion throughout the film, which made it an even better experience because you knew that people cared.